Venture Capital Firm Polychain Capital Heads $12M Initial Funding for Solana's Redistribution Protocol Solayer
Solana-based crypto restaking protocol Solayer has announced the successful completion of a $12 million seed funding round. The round was led by Polychain Capital and participated by Big Brain Holdings, Hack VC, Nomad Capital, Race Capital, ABCDE, and Arthur Haye's family office Maelstrom.
Solayer is a native, Solana-specific liquid restaking protocol designed to enable liquidity and multi-application security directly on the Solana network. In contrast, EigenLayer, an Ethereum-based protocol, extends Ethereum staking security via restaking ETH stake, enabling users to secure multiple protocols on Ethereum with layered incentives.
Key Differences Between Solayer and EigenLayer
The key differences between Solayer and EigenLayer lie primarily in their blockchain ecosystems, design approach, and supported assets.
Blockchain Ecosystem
Solayer is built specifically for the Solana blockchain, leveraging Solana's speed, flexibility, and developer environment. EigenLayer, on the other hand, is native to Ethereum, designed to extend Ethereum’s security model through restaking.
Restaking Assets
Solayer allows restaking of SOL and major Solana liquid staking tokens, such as mSOL, JitoSOL, bSOL, and INF. EigenLayer uses staked ETH from Ethereum validators as restaking collateral.
Design Approach
Solayer is purpose-built within the Solana ecosystem for seamless integration and to match Solana’s unique characteristics. EigenLayer adapts Ethereum’s existing staking for additional security layers and new app trust.
Token and Rewards
Solayer issues sSOL, a liquid restaking token combining staking rewards with extra income from Solayer’s validator network and DeFi participation including MEV. EigenLayer provides new economic incentives to restakers by allowing them to secure multiple protocols and receive additional rewards.
Target Users
Both large institutions and individual DeFi users on Solana benefit from Solayer, with liquid staking flexibility. EigenLayer primarily targets Ethereum stakers interested in boosting security and earning layered rewards.
Ecosystem Integration
Solayer supports DeFi use cases like lending, farming, and payments with sSOL on Solana dApps. EigenLayer focuses on enhancing Ethereum security for existing and new applications through restaking.
Solayer's Mainnet Launch and Key Features
Solayer's mainnet was launched on August 15. The platform's inaugural endogenous actively validated services at the mainnet launch included BONK, AltLayer, HashKey, and SonicSVM.
Solayer's restaking service helps secure actively validated services on the network. In return for securing these services, users receive more rewards, thus boosting their earnings. The platform has attracted 104,583 depositors, according to data from DeFiLlama.
At the time of the mainnet launch, Solayer had $160 million in total value locked. Solayer has locked more than $187 million in restaked assets from 104,546 depositors, according to its website. Unlike EigenLayer and Jito, a Solana-based liquid staking protocol, Solayer aims to start with native Solana on-chain dApps and assist them in reserving block space and prioritizing transaction inclusion based on the amount of stake delegated to them.
Solayer plans to use the fresh capital to expand its team and integrate new protocols before launching phase two of its platform. The platform's restaking service also allows users to earn rewards by locking earnings from staked tokens in other protocols. However, no specific launch date for phase two of Solayer's platform has been announced.
[1] DeFi: Decentralized Finance [2] MEV: Maximal Extractable Value [3] SAFE: Simple Agreement for Future Equity [4] TVL: Total Value Locked
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